Video Arts

Video Arts Ltd is a British learning-content company best known for using comedy and professionally produced video to teach workplace and management skills. It was founded in 1972 by comedian and actor John Cleese, writer and broadcaster Sir Antony Jay, and a group of television professionals. The founders applied television production techniques and the conventions of comedy to corporate education, at a time when business training films were often associated with formal, instructional, and visually static presentation. The company’s central proposition is that people are more likely to remember learning material when it is entertaining and recognizably connected to workplace situations. Its stated philosophy is expressed through a John Cleese quotation used as a slogan: “People learn nothing when they’re asleep, and very little when they’re bored.” In practice, Video Arts productions commonly dramatize management problems, communication failures, sales situations, meetings, performance reviews, stress, interviewing, and organizational change. Humour is used to expose bad habits and create discussion rather than merely to provide entertainment. Video Arts has produced and sold soft-skills training programmes for organizations and professional learners. Its output has included titles featuring prominent British performers such as John Cleese, Ronnie Corbett, Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Ricky Gervais, Jamie Oliver, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, James Nesbitt, Kris Marshall, Sharon Horgan, and others. The use of recognizable actors and comedians has been a distinctive part of the brand’s identity, helping turn abstract subjects such as appraisal, selling, assertiveness, time management, and change management into memorable scenarios. The company’s catalogue has included both individual training programmes and broader learning resources. In addition to producing its own material, Video Arts has distributed third-party titles. Its activities have expanded beyond conventional physical or broadcast-style training videos to include e-learning courses and learning platforms, reflecting the wider shift in corporate learning toward digital delivery and on-demand access. Although primarily associated with business education, Video Arts also produced the comedy series Fairly Secret Army for Channel 4. This television work demonstrates the company’s connection to the wider British television and comedy production community, while its principal commercial focus has remained workplace learning. The brand’s best-known titles include Meetings, Bloody Meetings, Can You Spare a Moment, The Balance Sheet Barrier, Jamie’s School Dinners: Managing Change, Pass It On, The Ultimate Stress Show, Performance Review: Every Appraisee’s Dream, The Art of Selling, Behavioural Interviewing, Assert Yourself, Mr. Kershaw’s Dream System, Performance Review: Code Red, Successful Selling, Sell It To Me, 30 Ways to Make More Time, Presentation is Everything, and The Unorganized Manager. Video Arts occupies a specialized position between corporate training provider, educational-content producer, and entertainment production company. Its enduring differentiation is the combination of workplace relevance, scripted comedy, professional performers, and concise learning messages. Publicly available reference material identifies its origins, catalogue, and general business activities, but does not provide enough information here to establish current ownership, leadership, headquarters, financial performance, or detailed market distribution.

Video Arts was established in the United Kingdom in 1972 by John Cleese, Sir Antony Jay, and other television professionals. Its creation brought together expertise from British television, comedy, and corporate communication. Rather than treating workplace instruction as a purely academic or documentary exercise, the founders developed a format in which business situations could be presented through scripted scenes, comic misunderstandings, recognizable characters, and professional acting. This approach addressed a practical problem in corporate education: learners may disengage from generic instructional material, particularly when it presents management principles without a clear connection to everyday behavior. Video Arts made humour a central teaching device. Its productions were designed to make a point memorable, encourage discussion, and allow viewers to recognize ineffective conduct in situations involving meetings, sales, supervision, interviews, performance management, stress, and organizational change. The brand’s philosophy is summarized by a John Cleese quotation used as its slogan, emphasizing that attention is a prerequisite for learning. Over time, Video Arts built a catalogue of workplace-learning programmes featuring well-known British performers. Early and prominent material included Meetings, Bloody Meetings, associated with John Cleese and Will Smith, and The Balance Sheet Barrier, which was made in versions featuring performers including Ronnie Corbett and Dawn French. Other programmes addressed specific business capabilities and organizational issues. Examples include Can You Spare a Moment, Jamie’s School Dinners: Managing Change, Pass It On, The Ultimate Stress Show, Performance Review: Every Appraisee’s Dream, The Art of Selling, Behavioural Interviewing, Assert Yourself, Mr. Kershaw’s Dream System, Performance Review: Code Red, Successful Selling, Sell It To Me, 30 Ways to Make More Time, Presentation is Everything, and The Unorganized Manager. The company’s production model relied on the combination of entertainment talent and practical training objectives. Performers such as Ricky Gervais, Hugh Laurie, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, James Nesbitt, Kris Marshall, Sharon Horgan, and others appeared in programmes addressing specific workplace behaviors. The celebrity casting was not simply ornamental: it helped Video Arts distinguish its material from conventional training films and gave learners memorable narrative and comedic reference points. Video Arts also extended its activities beyond its internally originated catalogue. It produced and sold soft-skills training programmes, distributed selected third-party titles, and developed e-learning courses and learning platforms. These activities placed the company within the broader corporate-learning market as delivery moved from physical video and scheduled viewing toward digital courses and platform-based learning. The company also produced Fairly Secret Army for Channel 4, a comedy series that connected Video Arts with television broadcasting as well as business education. Nevertheless, its principal identity remained that of a workplace-learning producer. The available reference material does not establish a detailed chronology of ownership changes, present-day executives, financial results, or current headquarters. Its documented legacy is the development of a distinctive British training-content format in which comedy and television craft are used to communicate professional and managerial lessons.

• 1972

  Video Arts is founded

  [1]Video Artsen.wikipedia.org

  John Cleese, Sir Antony Jay, and other television professionals establish Video Arts in the United Kingdom to create more engaging workplace-learning films.

• Expansion into digital learning

  [1]Video Artsen.wikipedia.org

  Video Arts expands its offer beyond video programmes to include e-learning courses and learning platforms, while also distributing selected third-party titles.

• Production of Fairly Secret Army

  [1]Video Artsen.wikipedia.org

  Video Arts produces the comedy series Fairly Secret Army for Channel 4, extending its activity into television entertainment.

A British workplace-learning brand that uses scripted comedy, recognizable performers, and television production techniques to make soft-skills and management training more memorable.

• Management and meeting skills

  Meetings, Bloody Meetings

  A workplace-learning programme built around the problems and absurdities of poorly run meetings. Associated with John Cleese and Will Smith, it uses comic situations to address meeting preparation, participation, structure, and effectiveness.

• Communication and time management

  Can You Spare a Moment

  A Video Arts training title featuring John Cleese and Ricky Gervais. The programme uses workplace comedy to explore interruptions, competing demands, communication, and the management of limited time.

• Financial literacy and business communication

  The Balance Sheet Barrier

  A training programme that uses comic drama to make financial and business concepts more accessible. Versions of the production featured Ronnie Corbett and, in a later version, Dawn French.

• Change management

  Jamie’s School Dinners: Managing Change

  A change-management learning programme connected with Jamie Oliver’s school-dinner initiative. It presents organizational change through a recognizable real-world context and focuses on the challenges of implementing new practices.

• Wellbeing and stress management

  The Ultimate Stress Show

  A workplace-learning production featuring Olivia Colman that addresses stress and pressure through comic scenarios. Its format is intended to help learners recognize stress-related behaviors and discuss practical responses.

• Performance management

  Performance Review: Every Appraisee’s Dream

  A performance-review training programme featuring Hugh Laurie. It examines appraisal conversations and the expectations of employees and managers through an exaggerated, humorous workplace scenario.

• Sales training

  The Art of Selling

  A sales-skills programme featuring Sheridan Smith. It applies Video Arts’ comedy-led format to customer interaction, selling behavior, and the practical challenges of making an effective sales presentation.

• Recruitment and interviewing

  Behavioural Interviewing

  A recruitment-focused programme featuring James Nesbitt, Rebecca Front, and Kris Marshall. It addresses behavioral interviewing and illustrates how interviewers can gather useful evidence about candidates’ past actions and capabilities.

• Communication and interpersonal skills

  Assert Yourself

  A communication-skills title featuring Kris Marshall and Mark Heap. Through comic workplace situations, it explores assertiveness, confidence, boundaries, and the difference between constructive self-expression and unhelpful aggression.

• Management and organizational systems

  Mr. Kershaw’s Dream System

  A Video Arts programme featuring Rowan Atkinson. It uses a comic character and exaggerated business systems to examine managerial thinking, process design, and the gap between an idealized system and practical workplace behavior.

• Performance management

  Performance Review: Code Red

  A performance-management programme featuring Sharon Horgan, Jim Howick, and David Schaal. It presents appraisal and feedback challenges in a heightened comic setting designed to stimulate discussion about effective reviews.

• Sales training

  Successful Selling

  A sales-training title featuring Kevin Bishop, James Lance, and Simon Greenall. It uses scripted situations to explore sales conduct, customer needs, persuasion, and the behaviors associated with successful selling.

• Sales training

  Sell It To Me

  A sales-focused learning programme featuring Robert Lindsay. Its comic approach turns sales interactions into examples for examining presentation, persuasion, and the relationship between seller behavior and customer response.

• Time management

  30 Ways to Make More Time

  A time-management programme featuring James Nesbitt. It presents practical workplace time pressures through a series of comic examples intended to help learners identify avoidable inefficiencies and improve prioritization.

• Presentation skills

  Presentation is Everything

  A presentation-skills title featuring Mathew Horne. It uses workplace comedy to illustrate how preparation, delivery, clarity, and presenter behavior influence the effectiveness of business presentations.

• Management and organization

  The Unorganized Manager

  A management-learning programme featuring John Cleese and James Bolam. It explores the consequences of disorganization and the practical behaviors required to manage work, priorities, and colleagues more effectively.

1. 1Video Artsen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Shooting the message #20: Video Artsbfi.org.uk